The present invention relates generally to a comminutor, and in particular to a vibratory comminutor.
Still more particularly, the invention relates to a vibratory comminutor having at least one vibratable container with at least one crushing zone in which at least one hammer unit is freely swingably mounted, and this hammer unit is located between sets of anvil units and can have swinging movements imparted to it substantially only in a straight-line direction towards and away from the crushing surfaces of the anvil units.
A vibratory comminutor is known from German Pat. No. 1,926,615 corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 3,687,739 issued Aug. 29, 1972. This prior-art device has a vibratable container with at least one crushing zone in which a crushing unit is mounted which is freely swingable in a plane. The crushing unit is configurated in form of hammer elements which are each arranged between two parallel fixed anvil members and can move only in a straight line towards and away from the respective anvil members. In this prior-art construction the hammer elements swing in a horizontal direction. The advantage of this construction is the fact that the hammer elements will perform a predetermined, i.e. directed hammer movement, so that it is assured that they will impinge the contact faces of the anvil elements with the necessary energy required to crush material located in between the hammer and anvil elements. This means that the associated contact faces on a respective hammer element and its cooperative anvil element cannot shift relative to one another, and this in turn assures that the rapidly swinging hammer elements will properly engage and comminute the material in cooperation with the associated anvil elements. Since the hammer elements perform precisely directed movements, it is assured that the energy required to produce the desired swinging movements will in fact be largely employed for the actual comminuting of the material, so that it has been observed that this prior-art construction has an efficiency which is greater than that of other prior-art vibratory comminutors by approximately 30-60 percent. This, in turn, quite evidently reduces the expenses involved for the crushing of the material, for example on a per ton basis. This prior-art comminutor, which I have disclosed in German Pat. No. 1,926,615 corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 3,687,379, can be used with good effect in substantially all branches of industry, and has been found to be especially advantageous in the cement producing industry.
In my prior-art construction the guidance of the swingably mounted hammer elements is effected by turnably mounted tubes which are located at the upper sides and undersides of the hammer elements, and if necessary also on both side faces. These tubes can be mounted for low friction in anti-friction bearings.
However, I have found that it is desirable to still further improve the guidance of the hammer elements and to increase the force with which the hammer elements impinge the associated anvil elements, in order to further improve the efficiency of the comminutor and to increase the period of operation for which the comminutor can operate without requiring repairs or maintenance.